Chapter 145
Encounter
Translator : PolterGlast
Passing through the Doog Wasteland, a grassland
spread out beyond it. From there, to conserve MP, I used Magic Power
Perception, Wind Search, and Perception in tandem, while
utilizing my limit-broken agility to begin moving at high speed. After heading
further north for a while, the grassland abruptly ended, and the wasteland
appeared once more. There, at last, Magic Power Perception picked up the
reactions of demons.
(Reactions of both humans and monsters... Definitely
demons.)
Since there wasn't much cover in the wasteland, I used Shadow
Dive for the time being, threading my way from shadow to shadow to close
the distance. Of course, the shadows broke off midway, but perhaps because they
never expected a human to come this far out, the demons didn't notice me.
(There are about thirty of them... A bit much for a first
battle?)
Seen from afar, the demons were arranged in a somewhat dense
formation around a campfire. They seemed to have their guard down, chatting and
laughing merrily. Compared to Lirica and Priola, whom I knew,
they looked much more like actual monsters. There were those with green skin
like goblins, those with pointy lizard-like heads and long extended tongues,
those with horse faces, and even those looking like centaurs with the lower
bodies of horses.
Demons possess the characteristics of both humans and
monsters. These ones probably leaned more towards the non-human monster traits.
It might be a good thing that Lirica and the others' appearances didn't
differ much from humans.
「Man, I'm so bored.」
「I wish His Excellency Zwaarth
would just hurry up and give us permission to pillage.」
「I absolutely love it when demons
kill each other, though!」
「Gahaha! But nothing beats the thrill
of taking a crying, screaming human and just... squashing them like a bug.」
「You said it!」
Snap. I heard
the sound of something snapping inside me. It seems that, to them, a war
against humans is treated as a mere pillaging trip. Does that mean, from their
perspective, it isn't even a war?
Whatever the case, it's fine. If the opponents are scum, I
don't need to feel any pangs of conscience.
I checked the surrounding reactions; there were no other
demons within my perception range. Alright, in that case... let's do this. I
won't hold back, of course. I'll go all out right from the very first move.
「Strength, Fortify, Quick, Accel.」
First, I applied the four-piece buff set and physical
enhancement that I hadn't used in a long time to raise my attack, defense, and
agility.
「Double Judgment Ray, Delay.」
I put a Judgment Ray on standby using Delay,
and then...
「Double Judgment Ray.」
I activated two more shots of Judgment Ray. With four
shots at my disposal, I could catch all the demons within range, even those a
bit further away.
「Eat this... Quadruple Judgment
Ray!」
Four pillars of light enveloped the demons. And a blinding
light illuminated everything in stark white... The demons who had just been
chatting merrily were all dead, charred to a crisp, save for a single one. It
seems the power of my current Judgment Ray was a bit too excessive. Hmm,
if they're this weak, a normal Railgun could probably finish them off.
「H-Hiiiiiieee!?」
The remaining one... the centaur demon who had looked the
most arrogant among them, was left alive with only one leg burned off. Of
course, my aim wasn't off. After all, if I killed them all, I wouldn't be able
to extract any information, right?
「Now then, spill the information.
Everything you know about the demons of the Demon Territory Zwaarth
stationed here.」
After gathering the information from the demon, I shot a Railgun
into him and killed him. Even a Railgun was overkill, huh. If it's just
to kill them, Chain Lightning might be more than enough.
After that, using the information I had, I moved on to
sweeping operations. It seemed the guys from the Demon Territory Zwaarth
just moved in groups based on their hometowns or regions, and possessed no real
cohesion as a military force. They simply operated on a ridiculously vague
military strategy, something like 'when an envoy from the higher-ups comes,
time it right and attack the humans.' Each individual is strong, and demons
naturally have strong egos to begin with. Rather than operating in organized
groups, giving them a certain degree of discretion seems to be the demon way of
doing things.
「Chain Lightning.」
「「「Gwaaaaahhh!!」」」
Thanks to that, it was extremely easy for me to handle.
Because the distance between each demon group was wide, I could engage in
somewhat intense battles without the other demons noticing. It seemed the power
of my magic was already way too excessive, so I was able to normally wipe them
out in batches using relatively weaker area-of-effect and multi-target attacks
like Chain Lightning and Light Arrow Rain. Naturally, the initial
Judgment Ray was apparently seen by some nearby demons, but I swiftly
disposed of them based on the intel I extracted, so it shouldn't be a problem.
「You bastard, who are... gah!?」
「It's been a while since I used Battoujutsu...
Yeah, my skills haven't dulled, what a relief.」
However, carelessly spamming magic also felt a bit risky, so
halfway through, I switched to mainly using swordsmanship to deal with my
opponents, also to conserve MP. Demons come in various rich variations;
aside from magic, there were individuals who excelled in close-quarters combat,
and even those capable of flying through the sky. It's true that with so many
different types all mastering Dark Magic at LV 5 or higher,
they're undoubtedly a considerable threat.
I killed a few demons who looked like messengers along the
way, so it wouldn't take long before they grew suspicious. I should hurry up a
bit. Once I clean up the demons around the battlefield, I'll advance straight
into the Demon Territory Zwaarth.
Even so, there seems to be a massive LV gap; no matter how many demons I defeat, my LV doesn't go up at all. Just when exactly is my LV going to rise?
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